year 4000 _piculs_ (of 133-1/3 lbs. each), but
the average is 2500 to 3000 (Ib.).

NOTE 2.--When Marco says Zayton is one of the _two_ greatest commercial
ports in the world, I know not if he has another haven in his eye, or is
only using an idiom of the age. For in like manner Friar Odoric calls Java
"the _second best_ of all Islands that exist"; and Kansan (or Shen-si) the
"_second best_ province in the world, and the best populated." But apart
from any such idiom, Ibn Batuta pronounces Zayton to be the greatest haven
in the world.

Martini relates that when one of the Emperors wanted to make war on Japan,
the Province of Fo-kien offered to bridge the interval with their vessels!

ZAYTON, as Martini and Deguignes conjectured, is T'SWAN-CHAU FU, or
CHWAN-CHAU FU (written by French scholars _Thsiouan-tcheou-fou_), often
called in our charts, etc., _Chinchew_, a famous seaport of Fo-kien about
100 miles in a straight line S.W. by S. of Fu-chau, Klaproth supposes that
the name by which it was known to the Arabs and other Westerns was
corrupted from an old Chinese name of the city, given in the Imperial
Geography, viz. TSEU-T'UNG.[1] _Zaitun_ commended itself to Arabian ears,
being the Arabic for an olive-tree (whence Jerusalem is called
_Zaituniyah_); but the corruption (if such it be) must be of very old date,
as the city appears to have received its present name in the 7th or 8th
century.

Abulfeda, whose Geography was terminated in 1321, had heard the real name
of Zayton: "_Shanju_" he calls it, "known in our time as Zaitun"; and
again: "Zaitun, i.e. Shanju, is a haven of China, and, according to the
accounts of merchants who have travelled to those parts, is a city of
mark. It is situated on a marine estuary which ships enter from the China
Sea. The estuary extends fifteen miles, and there is a river at the head
of it. According to some who have seen the place, the tide flows. It is
half a day from the sea, and the channel by which ships come up from the
sea is of fresh water. It is smaller in size than Hamath, and has the
remains of a wall which was destroyed by the Tartars. The people drink
water from the channel, and also from wells."

Friar Odoric (in China, circa 1323-1327, who travelled apparently by
land from Chin-kalan, i.e. Canton) says: "Passing through many cities
and towns, I came to a certain noble city which is called Zayton, where we
Friars Minor have two Houses.... In this city is great plenty of